Tailing a Steelhead with a glove....

[fish_fishburn]

I am not sure if this topic has ever been discussed here but here I go. I see alot of photos of anglers showing there fish pics while wearing a tailing glove. I have always been told that you should wet your hands before holding any fish so that you don't remove the protective slime off the fish. The slime is there as a barrier to prevent skin infection. It seems to me that wearing a wool glove or a tailing glove for the simple reason of getting a better grip is a total dispespect for this awesome creature.

 

A properly played fish should nor require a glove of any kind as far as I am concerned. I did some research on this topic and have seen pictures of Steelhead with what looks like their tails are rotting off. This might be from spawning or quite possibly from the use of a tailing glove. Some say that tailing gloves should be banned and I think I have to agree. I guess this isn't a big deal if your going to bonk the fish but with so much catch and release these days by conservation minded anglers I think this is something to seriously think about.

 

I'm sure alot of people have never thought that a glove could probably be doing serious damage to any fish since we see them in use on pretty well all the fishing shows now days. Some of the gloves I have seen are like sandpaper on the palms or even like a butchers glove with the chain mesh. I guess I will side with caution and never use a glove, and always wet your hands first before handling any fish. What do you think?

[BillM]

What's better, using a glove or beaching the fish and letting it flop around in the mud?

 

I use a glove anytime I can.. And the one I use is nothing close to sandpaper, it's a fireproof glove I got from millwright buddy of mine. It's always wet before I grab the fish. I can hold the fish up, pop the hook, take a quick pic and get that fish back in the water without it ever touching shore.

 

No plans on removing it from my vest anytime soon.

 

Those pictures are most likely of fish that have been digging beds, I'm sure that's not so good for the tail

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

i would love to see a better way of landing a fish while standing in knee deep water.

[troutologist]

I disagree with the term properly played fish...a properly played fish (in close proximity to its spawn especially) should be one played quickly and brought to hand far before exhaustion. Im my opinion, the beaching of fish in mud, or worse, sand and allowing it to flop around and get debris in its eyes and gills is far worse than a tailing glove.

 

A glove or better a net, will allow for a fish to be landed and controlled much more effectively. I don't think a wet glove of wool or cotton would do extreme damage.

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

if they are bad, someone should tell our gov't fisheries agencies because they hand out wool gloves for fish handling!

Edited March 23, 2010 by Dr. Salvelinus

[MJL]

Tailing gloves are great especially when they’re super fresh and super chrome from the lake. Those fish tend to be the most slippery I find. The rest of the time, they don’t seem too bad to hold onto.

 

Some styles of glove I’ve seen used on the rivers:

- Standard cotton wool gloves (a staple out west)

- Michigan mesh gloves – Made out of PVC mesh I believe.

- Rapala fillet gloves

- Seal Skinz waterproof gloves with polymer gripper dots and a plastic coating on the palm and fingers (I use these sometimes when I remember to bring them).

 

 

Some criticisms I’ve heard about for using a glove:

- The sanitary conditions after you’ve handled a number of fish. Bacteria can grow on the surfaces and spread to each fish you catch.

- Removal of fish slime.

 

As Bill mentioned, if you can grab them while they’re still in the water (and quickly), it sure beats dragging them up onto dry, rocky, sandy or muddy banks to subdue them when they’ve fought to total exhaustion. I would imagine fighting a fish to total exhaustion in order to properly subdue it would pose a greater risk to the health of a fish than the use of a tailing glove. For a lot of my fishing trips the last 2-3yrs, I’ve been toting along my heavy rubber meshed net as a means to land them quicker and in deeper water.

 

If you’re really worried about causing further damage to a landed fish, you can grab the leader, pull the fish close and pop the hook with a pair of pliers while standing knee to waist deep in water...You do risk breaking the line though.

[justin elia]

I am not sure if this topic has ever been discussed here but here I go. I see alot of photos of anglers showing there fish pics while wearing a tailing glove. I have always been told that you should wet your hands before holding any fish so that you don't remove the protective slime off the fish. The slime is there as a barrier to prevent skin infection. It seems to me that wearing a wool glove or a tailing glove for the simple reason of getting a better grip is a total dispespect for this awesome creature.

 

A properly played fish should nor require a glove of any kind as far as I am concerned. I did some research on this topic and have seen pictures of Steelhead with what looks like their tails are rotting off. This might be from spawning or quite possibly from the use of a tailing glove. Some say that tailing gloves should be banned and I think I have to agree. I guess this isn't a big deal if your going to bonk the fish but with so much catch and release these days by conservation minded anglers I think this is something to seriously think about.

 

I'm sure alot of people have never thought that a glove could probably be doing serious damage to any fish since we see them in use on pretty well all the fishing shows now days. Some of the gloves I have seen are like sandpaper on the palms or even like a butchers glove with the chain mesh. I guess I will side with caution and never use a glove, and always wet your hands first before handling any fish. What do you think?

 

 

In a perfect world, everyone would carry around a rubber meshed net. Scoop the fish up, pop the hook and release. I would highly recommend to everyone to carry a net with a magnetic lanyard. Landing fish this way will actually land them sooner then they are ready to come in. How many times have you had a steelhead at your feet or knees and you try and grab it and it takes another 30 yard dash. With a net you can minimize those situations.

 

In most cases, steelheaders dont land fish with nets, they typically bank them, which isn't wrong either provided you keep them at the waters edge and release them as quickly as possible.

 

I personally don't use gloves to land fish. No matter how you look at it, it takes away protective slime. That being said, we have to use gloves when lifting steelhead at Streetsville or else we couldn't hold on to them. We do however, soak all gloves in an iodine solution before handling any fish for protective purposes.

 

In priority, I would suggest a rubber mesh net, then no glove, then wet glove.

 

At the end of the day, RELEASING the fish is the goal I like to see more anglers be a part of.

[asdve23rveavwa]

I use a tailing glove...90 % of the time...the 10 % I don't use it are the fish I keep more often than not.

I will usually wet my glove before grabbing the fish, however.

[craigdritchie]

Why touch the fish to begin with?

 

Probably 95 percent of the fish I "land" never touch either me or the ground. I wade in a little over ankle deep, grab the line a few inches above the hook, and pop the hook out with a pair of needlenose pliers. Fish is back where it came from in a second or two, completely unharmed, and I don't have to get my hands wet. That's such a luxury when fishing in cold weather.

 

If it's an exceptional fish and I want a quick photo, then I'll beach it. But understand there are places where it's appropriate to beach a fish, and places where it isn't. Don't drag it up on the mud, or scrape it over the sand. Usually, if you're willing to walk a few feet upstream or downstream you can find a shallow gravelly spot where you can beach it easily, and without filling its gills with silt. Pop the hook out, take your quick picture, and send it back on its merry way.

 

If you're going to release a fish and really expect it to survive, you need to minimize your contact with it. Learning to unhook it in the water, not touching it at all, is by far the best approach.

[fish_fishburn]

wool gloves I would say are the worst for removing the slime and are the norm for most because of the cold weather that comes with steelhead fishing. Maybe there should be a law that says nets are mandatory when fishing. That way you can stand in the water and never have to take the fish out of the water. As far as dragging a flopping fish up on the sand or mud because you probably don't have boots or waders on and don't want to get your feet wet is just totally wrong unless of course you are going to keep it.

 

Don't get me wrong fellas I respect your opinions and am not trying to pick a fight with anybody I am just saying we should all do whats best for the fish, thats all.

[bigfish1965]

I fish from a pier..I use a rubber net AND a glove. I net the fish, leave them in the water for a few minutes, bring them ashore, handle with glove (cause big walleye are hard to hang on to) remove the hook, picture, back into the net, back into the water, let them recover and swim out.

 

So far it is the best way to reduce injury that I have found for what I do.

[MJL]

wool gloves I would say are the worst for removing the slime and are the norm for most because of the cold weather that comes with steelhead fishing. Maybe there should be a law that says nets are mandatory when fishing. That way you can stand in the water and never have to take the fish out of the water. As far as dragging a flopping fish up on the sand or mud because you probably don't have boots or waders on and don't want to get your feet wet is just totally wrong unless of course you are going to keep it.

 

Don't get me wrong fellas I respect your opinions and am not trying to pick a fight with anybody I am just saying we should all do whats best for the fish, thats all.

 

No worries...Everybody has their own opinions and views. I've met anglers who despise even the fish friendliest of nets one can possibly buy and would rather tail or beach their fish instead. Others feel boga grips are the way to go (which I don't entirely agree with).

 

It may surprise you to hear that using nets is mandatory by law in the UK for their carp fishing as well as many parts in Europe (like France). Many waters there require you to have a minimum net size of at least 36 inches wide and on the majority of waters with specimen carp, it’s 42 inches. These nets are soft with fine mesh. It’s also law to have soft, padded, unhooking mats (like a small sleeping mattress for carp) to place your catch on the bank while you take pics and unhook them etc. They really do love their carp though.

 

For the majority of anglers in the UK, they consider our fish handling skills here in NA to be barbaric. Post pics on a UK based carp forum of a carp, pike or catfish lifted over short grass or rocks without a mat or inside a non-fish-friendly net and you’ll be flamed more than a BK whopper . They have soft-meshed nets for just about every species of course and game fish they have – sticklebacks included.LOL

 

Do I see rubber or soft meshed nets becoming law in Canada? Not likely.

[Dozer]

... it seems like we're just taking guesses as to whats better and whats worse.

 

Sure we can agree upon a few...

 

Here's what I think.

 

I mean really, wetting your hands before handling the fish? ...look at this, how would your hands be dry if your handling a fish anyways? How would you get it outta the water? With a net? A net does tonnes of slime damamge, even rubber ones "rub" slime off, much less, but still

 

Beaching? Sure thats a threat ( I'm assuming ) to the surface cells of the gill rakes, but they've probably taken worse beatings before with all the debris in chocolate milk water.

 

Beaching on gravel? Are you kidding, unless you can guarentee every rock in the creek is rounded smooth, beaching a fish into gravel can cut and slice open its skin, opening the doors for infection and disease.

 

Just 'cause the fish has slime doens't mean its critter free, bring me a sample of slime, I'll show you under a microscope what is going on.

 

Fish throw slime fairly quickly, I'b be more concerned about the fish loosing energy than loosing a bit of slime.

 

Fish looses lots of energy, is weak, cant keep up with current, dies( unlikely ), a weakend fish is an open door for bugs to take over, think of the fish resting in slow moving water ( after a battle with your 12' rod ) with its belly rubbing on the sand or gravel and slime rubbing off, who cares right, you were 3/4 that day and you have photo's to boot! YEEEHAWWWWWW!!

 

Sorry.

[Dozer]

Yikes, where did thatcome from

[Jigger]

I have to agree with Craig. Unhooking in the water is by far the best way to release quickly. However, I use alot of spinners and cranks to fish rainbows and alot of them get hooked real well. Using the same gill hold as on a muskie or pike keeps the fish under control alot better then tailing the fish 99% of the time. And if pics MUST be taken, take them of superior fish. Once you've seen one steelhead, the rest are clones. A pb? Sure. A first? Why not. But for most avid 'headers, the pics may as well just be scans of previous fish. Catch a 10-20lb fish, I'll be interested.

 

EDIT: After reading Dr. Salvenius' thread, I will say that I really enjoy pics of trout in the water. Real cool. And it saves the bashing that the angler is sure to endure if the spot hes at is recognized as someone elses spot.

Edited March 23, 2010 by Jigger

[fish_fishburn]

I agree Jigger they sure do look cool in the water. I wonder if we have any biologists on here who could chime in and give us a scientific opinion. Just curious.

[BillM]

I agree Jigger they sure do look cool in the water. I wonder if we have any biologists on here who could chime in and give us a scientific opinion. Just curious.

 

 

4th poster down if I'm not mistaken

[steelie hunter]

What's better, using a glove or beaching the fish and letting it flop around in the mud?

 

I use a glove anytime I can.. And the one I use is nothing close to sandpaper, it's a fireproof glove I got from millwright buddy of mine. It's always wet before I grab the fish. I can hold the fish up, pop the hook, take a quick pic and get that fish back in the water without it ever touching shore.

 

No plans on removing it from my vest anytime soon.

 

Those pictures are most likely of fish that have been digging beds, I'm sure that's not so good for the tail

 

 

Lol, and it seems most anglers keep most of what they catch anyway...unfortunitley. Hows that for showing disrespect to such an awesome creature

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

4th poster down if I'm not mistaken

 

he works for the feds... what do they know?

[troutologist]

he works for the feds... what do they know?

 

 

You ever try to tail a walrus without a glove? Not a 2nd time....

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

You ever try to tail a walrus without a glove? Not a 2nd time....

 

 

would a backpack electrofisher or selective piscicide help? if so, i'm your guy.

[troutologist]

would a backpack electrofisher or selective piscicide help? if so, i'm your guy.

 

 

Maybe but I'm looking for something in a remotely deployed GPS tag, so not to drug them. Community approval I could use....

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

Maybe but I'm looking for something in a remotely deployed GPS tag, so not to drug them.

 

you mean, when you're tailing them they won't let you slap it on?